Scientists 'ignored' as listing revoked for Murray Darling Basin

The Federal Government has been accused of ignoring scientists in favour of 'political expedience', after it revoked the critically endangered listing of the Murray Darling Basin.

The listing was placed on the Basin by the former Federal Labor Government the day before this year's official election campaign began, prompting the ire of irrigators groups who thought it would make it harder to run or expand their business in the Basin.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment says it's getting rid of bureaucracy.

'This really is a decision that...ensures that communities, businesses and landholders can get on with business, not without having to meeting strong environmental standards, but without just another layer of red tape over and above what are already very strong environmental standards,' Simon Birmingham said.

Tom Chesson from the Irrigators Council is very pleased to see the listing removed.

'We'd just gone through an extremely bruising and long process which was the Murray Darling Basin Plan process and this just came out of the blue...no-one had been consulted,' Mr Chesson said.

And he says there's no risk that the Murray Darling Basin won't get the protection it needs.

'Not at all. If you go out there and look at the environmental and planning regulations that are already on people and projects within the Basin, you will see that...that's absolute rubbish.

'All this did was add another chapter in the War and Peace novel on environmental protection in the Basin.

'The Basin is just having $12 million spent on recovering water to improve river health....it's in rude good health.'

Environmental group Humane Society International supported the listing and the Society's Michael Kennedy says it stands by its argument that the Basin is in danger.

'Five years of independent scientific review has shown that to be the case...the outcome is that this place is critically endangered and requires further conservation efforts,' he said.

'All the Murray Darling plan does is manage water - it doesn't manage ecosystems, and that's the key difference.'

'We've been trumped by politics and it's not just the Murray Darling, there's been a key change in government attitude for the first time that ignores the scientists in favour of political expediency, and that in the long term is very, very dangerous for all of Australia... very, very, very worrying.'

Simon Birmingham, Parliamentary secretary to the Minister for the Environment